My husband brought these two small personal travel cases into our household twenty years ago, not because of the cases themselves, but because they kept all of the old telephone wire and other odds and ends he might need *someday*. Suffice it to say, after two decades they were still just hanging out in the basement. I eyed them earlier last week….sayyyyyy……
So he dumped all of the contents and gave me the cases. One belonged to his mother, and the other to his grandmother. Each had their own initials on them. I loved them already!
The first thing I did was clean up the outside with some everyday spray cleaner.
One of the cases had a liner in the lid that I didn’t think was worth salvaging. The fabric was torn and furthermore, the foam behind it looked like old mildew had gotten to it. I gently tore it completely out and threw it away.
To put in its place I cut and measured a thick piece of cardboard, and then had a grand time finding the right background paper to adhere to it. I used rick-rack to cross over it, bulletin board style, and then trimmed the edge with some lace I pulled off an old skirt I had been saving for *something*. Across the bottom I laid some batting and then attached some fresh fabric, leaving the side pockets still in use. It sure cleaned up nice.
I decided to use the case for all of the odds and ends that I like to use when creating and decorating my own stationery for snail mailing with my friends and pen pals. A sweet friend of mine made me, for my birthday, a collection of embellishments I could use for that very purpose, so I put those in there too. I used a small tin to hold tiny buttons and other decorative pieces too.
This is what the case inside ended up looking like. I put in stickers, ribbons, twine, fabric scraps, the little tin, magazine cut-outs, other handmade embellishments and a small pair of scissors and glue. I love it! Everything’s in one place, and even with it closed, I find it to just be delightful.
The other case was in much better shape. Isn’t it lovely? I cannot believe I just let it lie fallow all these years.
Even the inside looked good. I used a hot glue gun to tack down some of the liner but that was all it really needed. I laid in some colorful pieces of fabric into the plastic tray and it really brightened it up a lot.
And here’s the finished case. I am using it to store all of my sewing and felting notions and it just sits happily next to my Singer featherweight. Best of all, everything’s within reach but nothing’s out in the open tempting little fingers or gathering dust.
I wish I still had my grandparents around. I think I would have loved to snoop around their houses and taken home things to repurpose.
Blessings,
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